


A Good Start

by Evandar



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-30
Updated: 2014-09-30
Packaged: 2018-02-19 10:24:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2384939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evandar/pseuds/Evandar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kaiba challenges Yugi to a duel. It's for his own good, really.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Good Start

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FleetSparrow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FleetSparrow/gifts).



> I haven't written for YuGiOh! in ages, so this was really fun - and I loved all your prompts. I hope you like what I did with this one.

“Hi! How can I – Kaiba?”

The Game Shop was almost exactly as he remembered it. Admittedly, he hadn’t paid that much attention to the layout or displays the last time he’d been in there, but the biggest difference was that it was Mutou behind the counter now instead of the old man – and Mutou _had_ changed.

Jou claimed that he looked more like Yami now. That age – it had only been a year, damn it – had given him a cynical look to the eyes at the same time it had stripped whatever remained of his baby fat. Honestly, he’d spent so much time denying the spirit’s existence that he’d put it all down to acting anyway, but he was willing to give Jou the benefit of the doubt. Mutou had changed, and not for the better.

“It’s been a long time,” Mutou said, leaning on the counter. He still wore black leather; still wore heavy jewellery, but he just looked wrong without that gaudy puzzle hanging around his neck. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to challenge you to a duel, Mutou,” he said.

It was…sad that Mutou actually looked surprised by that. Like there was no possible reason why anyone would want to duel him; as if his only association with games was the shop he stood in.

“Me?” he asked. “Why? You’re the reigning champion.”

Kaiba nodded. “On the duel circuit,” he said. “But you’re not on the circuit anymore, Mutou, and you can’t be a real champion without beating the last one.” At Mutou’s blank stare, he rolled his eyes. “You,” he pointed out. “ _You_ were the champion, and I still haven’t beat _you_.”

Mutou shook his head. “I – that. Kaiba, that wasn’t me. That was –“

“Your alter-ego,” he interrupted. “The one _you_ defeated.”

Jou had been right, and he had a horrible, creeping suspicion that he would never be allowed to forget that. He watched as Mutou’s mouth moved silently, and he crossed his arms over his chest as he waited for some kind of reaction. The way Jou had been talking about Mutou – the little pep-talk he’d given in the limo on the way there – had told him there was a problem, but Jou had never got out of the habit of over-exaggerating.

Eventually, Mutou’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t duel anymore,” he said, but a rueful smile crossed his face, and the familiarity of that expression; his similarity to the departed Pharaoh made Kaiba’s breath hitch. “Jou put you up to this, didn’t he?”

Kaiba shrugged. Jou could defend himself if necessary. “Guilty,” he said. “That doesn’t mean I’m leaving without a fight, Mutou, so either get out your deck or get me a coffee.”

And Mutou laughed. A bright, brilliant sound that hadn’t been heard – according to Jou, anyway – in the year since the Pharaoh passed on. He suspected he’d be getting the coffee rather than the duel, but laughter…

Laughter was a start.


End file.
